Band:	Dark At Dawn
Album:	Of Decay And Desire
Style:	Power metal
Release date:	2003

01. The Sleepwalker
02. End of Ice - Warriorqueen
03. Luna
04. Maid Of Stone
05. Forever
06. The 5th Horseman
07. ? And The Sea Wept
08. Soulitude
09. Fair Well
10. Weltenbrand
11. One-Night Fall
12. The Rose Of Tears

With about one band that releases an album each day, the Finnish-like gothic metal scene tends to be saturated and stereotyped. I admit that I am a bit bored to hear still the same vocals, the same pompous pseudo-romantic music. This is an ocean of uniformity in which only the leaders survive, whereas most of others drown when fans are fed up.

Luckily, Dark At Dawn is a bit above the rest. Of course, in "Of Decay And Desire", you find all the common places inherent to this genre, like the singer with harsh vocals a la Sentenced [cool voice anyway], sometimes female vocals [featuring Anissa Taggatz], and the melodic guitar duals... But what distinguishes them is the impression of power that radiates from this album: the music is really aggressive, speed and heavy, sometimes on the verge of power/thrash, just as if Sentenced met Iced Earth. In other words, imagine Frozen of Sentenced with a good and clean sound [congrats to the producer], played at full speed with a spirit of vengeance, and you have Of Decay And Desire.
This is actually the kind of album you won't forget, because it has been written for you not to forget it: I had not heard such catchy choruses for a long time [listen to 'The Sleepwalker' or 'Maid Of Stone' and you will see what I mean], there is a perfect adequation between heaviness ['One Night Fall'] and melodies ['The Rose Of Tears'] with beautiful power ballads ['Luna']. This is formatted to be successful, and no doubt gothic fans will pounce on it like flies on a heap of shit. And maybe I am a sheep, but I like it, even if I am not really sure of the honesty of this album. At leats it is a bit different.